At the start of yesterdays Irish press conference which followed yesterday's second technical rehearsal for this year's Eurovision Song Contest entry for Ireland a statement was made by the Head of the Irish Delegation Julian Vignoles. He voiced his dissatisfaction regarding the host broadcaster Channel One Russia on the inconsistent approach used by production team on the camera presentation.
Mr Vignoles said, "we have just come from a difficult session in the viewing room. We have been extremely disappointed by the coverage we’ve got in terms of the multi camera directing and the shots, and it would be a waste of time to come here and pretend otherwise."
He added, "The rehearsal has gone a little bit backwards in a lot of ways from where we were in our first rehearsal and this is most disturbing and demoralising for Sinéad and the girls, and it’s something that the production will have to take into account."
Furthermore, "I think that perhaps we aren’t the only country that is suffering in this way but there are some very basic televisual rules not being observed in the cutting. Cameras are doing things they shouldn’t do, they are doing things that they’re not sure of and they are not being cut very well."
He was complimentary in saying that he knew the whole production team were working very hard but felt that, with a four day break before the start of the dress rehearsals, everything "should be in much better shape. I think that they need to get their act together a bit better," said Mr Vignoles.
The usually extrovert Press Conference Host Dimitry Shépelev was, untypically silent, struggling to think of what to say. He gathered his thoughts and said that this was the first time he had heard a Delegation comment on the production like this and hoped that everything would be resolved.
esctoday.com contacted Mr. Vignoles directly for comment and said "I was just making the point that there were too many mistakes in the shooting of our song, considering this was the second rehearsal day."
However regarding the performance of Ireland's entry by Sinéad Mulvey & Black Daisy, he said, "We were all very happy with the performance."
Julian Vignoles is a member of the Reference group; the governing authority of the Eurovision Song Contest.
We would like to thank Robin Scott for attending the Irish press confernce on behalf of esctoday.com
